Over the Mountains
by Tempral Bouncer
Summary: There is a reason that long range teleportation is not commonplace. I vaguely remember Max explaining a few years ago about needing stabilization way-points, a sympathetic connection to the target area, and a whole bunch of other stuff … He was wrong.


A/N: One-shot. Set slightly over a decade after the anime in a somewhat darker world. The secondary character, Duplica, is not an original character. She appears first in episode 37 and then again in episode 174.

Over the Mountains

There is a reason that long range teleportation is not commonplace. I vaguely remember Max explaining a few years ago about how most pokemon simply don't have the energy required to yank a group of people across long distances. He had some longwinded science-type explanation about how you needed stabilization way-points, and a sympathetic connection to the target area, and a whole bunch of other shit.

He was wrong. The reason teleportation isn't commonplace is it _fucking hurts_.

The moment I feel solid ground under my feet, I collapse to my hands and knees and throw up. Twice. I keep my eyes squeezed shut and try to convince myself that no one is forcing an onyx through my ear canals. Pain flares all across my body, and I feel like someone is stabbing me with thousands of knives simultaneously. I don't think I scream, but more because I can't convince my muscles to follow directions than because of any self-control. After what feels to me like hours, but in actuality is probably only a minute or two, the pain recedes to the point where I can think again.

I slowly open my eyes and blink a few times as they adjust to the bright afternoon sun. Oddly enough, the first thing I notice as my vision clears is that something smells horrendous; far worse than the vomit I'm still knelt over. I tilt my head to the left to check on my traveling companions, and feel a rush of vertigo and nausea. If there was anything at all left in my stomach, I'm sure I would throw up again. As it stands, I settle for coughing up a bit of blood.

After taking a few seconds to compose myself, I try tilting my head again, moving very, very gradually this time. Ditto comes into my field of vision first. He's unconscious and has reverted to his natural purple-amoeba form. As far as I can tell, he looks alive, but then again, I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to the transformation pokemon. I think maybe I can see him breathing?

Duplica is lying motionless on her side next to him, still dressed in her imitation-Jenny uniform. She looks like hell. I can see several dozen stingers from the pin missile attack she took still sticking out of her leg and the bottom of her frayed skirt, though it looks like the bleeding has stopped. Her left arm is bent at an unnatural angle beneath her, and her right forearm looks burned, though I can't tell from this angle how badly. Her turquoise hair, flopped down to half-cover the front of her face, has been singed down to barely a third of its previous length and it, along with her face, is caked in blood.

That explains the smell then. Burning hair creates one of the worst smells in the world. As I look over at her I start counting, silently praying to myself. One. Two. Three. Four. On four, I see the faint rise and fall of her chest. She's still breathing. She's alive. At least for now.

Ever so slowly, I lean backwards so that I'm sitting on my legs. I reach my hand into the pack around my waist and rummage blindly until I find what I'm pretty sure is the right pokeball. Bringing it back around into my field of vision I manage to crack a small smile as I expand it in my hand. "You're up," I whisper, releasing the ball as I begin coughing violently.

With a flash of light, Chansey appears, smiling and waving her pink stubby arm-fins for a brief second. "Chansey, Chan—" her voice cuts off and the smile fades from her face as she looks around at the scene in front of her. Her eyes settle on me questioningly as I regain control of my very dry throat. "Chansey?"

"Them first," I manage to croak out before giving in to another coughing fit. Speaking is apparently not the best of ideas at the moment. The pink egg pokemon looks back and forth between Duplica, Ditto and I, frowning, but wobbles over to Ditto and begins inspecting him.

For what feels like the umpteenth time in just three short weeks, I thank whatever higher power it was that helped me find Chansey's pokeball amidst the ruins of the Viridian pokemon center. From what we've been able to gather, the Nurse Joy at the center had just enough time to recall Chansey and hide the pokeball inside a small refrigerator before the city was leveled. The pokeball was damaged when we found it, but Max had managed to repair it… I shake my head and force myself back to the present. That line of thought leads nowhere good.

"Chan-sey. Chan," Chansey nods from her position by Ditto, before wobbling her way over to Duplica. As she begins examining the imitation trainer, I realize that I desperately need water, and I notice a sharp pain in my side. Gritting my teeth to try to ignore the pain, I realize that we're going to need to find food and shelter for the night. I doubt we'll be in any condition to move very far anytime soon.

I reach around into my pack again and grab two pokeballs this time. Expanding both of them in my right hand, I drop them to the ground, not even trying to use their voice activation system. As they hit the ground, two pokemon appear, and I smile weakly at having picked the right balls again. Blaziken and Blastoise both materialize with twin flashes of white light. Blaziken is still sporting a few injuries from the escape fight a few minutes ago, but she looks to be recovering well. Blastoise, of course, is fine.

I try asking Blastoise for water, but instead just end up coughing up a bit more blood. I think he got the message though, because a few seconds later, he fires an ice beam at the ground and breaks off a small piece for me to suck on. I take it from him gratefully and the melting ice is like heaven to my throat. The pain in my side is getting worse, though, and I finally glance down to look at it.

It's not really possible to put into words how disorienting it is to peer down past your breasts and see your midsection covered in third degree burns. The moment I see the burns, they stop hurting, and I feel oddly disconnected from my body. I'm not sure why I'm not screaming in pain. The burns _look_ painful. I'm pretty sure they weren't this bad prior to the teleport. I get a sudden mental image of Max rambling about 'going into shock' and giggle.

My memory after that becomes somewhat hazy. I remember ordering Blaziken to find us shelter for the night, and calmly reassuring her that I will be fine to convince her to go. I remember watching as Chansey and Blastoise converse, idly wondering what they're saying. Then I remember Chansey standing over me, her egg and her eyes glowing white. Then nothing.

***

Images flash through my mind. They are hazy. Distant. Nonsensical. I see figures, some humanoid, some pokemon, but I can't make out any details. Then I see flashes of scenes from my past. Some are first person; in others I'm somehow watching myself.

Flash. I see a girl, very young – she couldn't be older than three or four – dressed in a white hospital gown, holding a wrinkly, but still cute, newborn dressed in blue. She has a huge grin plastered on her face and keeps making nonsense noises at the baby, who isn't really very responsive. He's sleeping. I can't personally remember the scene, but I've seen it from family picture books. Even if I hadn't, I could have told the young girl was me.

Flash. I cry, staring down at my skinned knee, all of five and a half years old. An older boy, the one who had knocked me down, runs away, calling back a weak apology over his shoulder. I continue crying.

Flash. I see myself, age seven or eight, running from stand to stand in an outdoor market. My head is constantly moving, scanning the crowd, and it's obvious that I'm becoming more upset every second. Finally, I spot a uniformed police-woman with blue hair and run over to her. On the verge of tears I tug at the hem of her skirt to get her attention, "Ex-excuse me ma'am, I think I'm l-l-l-lost."

Flash. Barking in the background. Hesitantly, I hear myself say, "Got it. Use water gun." Then I feel a stream of cold water collide with my face, soaking me. It doesn't hurt as I would expect it to these days, but getting unexpectedly drenched is still not a pleasant experience.

Flash. "Overheat, full blast!" my twelve-year-old self yells. "Solar beam, full blast!" calls a young man's voice. I recognize the voice, but I'm not sure where from. I hear a large explosion and a smoke cloud becomes visible in my peripheral vision. "Blaziken!" my younger self calls out with concern. A buzzer rings out in the background, and I watch my younger self stare at the cloud, anxiety visible on her face.

Flash. "Drew!" I hear my concerned voice yell. As I run towards the group of three, I can vaguely make out the lump that is Drew's form sprawled on the ground, but can't see his injuries clearly. I do know he's hurt badly. "Get away from him! Blaziken, you're up!" With a flash of light, Blaziken materializes between Drew and the Rockets. The female Rocket grins and flicks her blonde hair back behind her shoulder. "Well," she says, yanking a pokeball from her belt, "at least _this _one's got a _real_ pokemon." Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember that Drew's Roselia died that day.

Flash. "Evacuate the civilians," I hear my younger self say. She's in her late teens by now. In place of the normal bandana, a white bandage tinged with red is wrapped around her head and a few small cuts and bruises visible on her face. Officer Jenny starts to protest but the younger me cuts her off. "It's a faint. You're right that you all could repel an assault this size. The League knows that. They're just trying to lure you outside the walls for a quick victory. They did the same thing at Rustburo. They're using psychic pokemon to hide the majority of their troops. If you don't believe me, ask one of your dark-types what the field out there looks like." As my younger self gestures towards the city gate, I can see the hope draining from Jenny and her compatriots' faces. My younger self doesn't even notice. She continues, "Evacuate the civilians. Break them into groups no larger than ten and make sure each group has at least one dark or psychic type with it to cloak them. We can't afford to give them any big targets. Now, we need to set up a temporary defensive perimeter…"

***

"Hey! Wake up! Wake up already, goddammit! May!" I feel the sting of a hand against my cheek and groan quietly.

"Ow." I reflexively raise one of my hands to touch my cheek and notice in the process that I'm lying on my back on an uncomfortably hard surface. My eyes snap open and I realize my mistake.

_Never reveal yourself as you regain consciousness. Pretend to still be sleeping until you've gathered your wits._

Thankfully I don't find myself in a hostile situation. Instead, I find Duplica's face illuminated in fire-light, her Ditto perched on her shoulder, kneeling beside me, staring down at me with an amused smirk. "See?" the turquoise haired girl asks as she looks behind her, "I told you I wouldn't get hit."

"Blaziken, Blaze," responds the fire-type.

I groan again and sit up rapidly, forcing Duplica to move her face backwards lest my forehead collide with it. "Where are we?" I ask, now fully awake thanks to the adrenaline spike of being slapped from my sleep and then giving myself away.

Looking around, I can see that we're in a small cave. The stone walls are stained green from moss growth. I've been laid out near one side of the cave, while Blaziken is seated cross-legged more towards the center. The only illumination comes from the dancing flames on her wrists and ankles. Towards the back of the cave is a small pool of water, not much larger than I am really. I can't really make out any details outside the mouth of the cave, just enough to know it's nighttime and we're in a forested area.

"We know we made it to Hoenn, at least, given the plant life. It's cloudy, so we're not sure exactly where in Hoenn we are beyond 'in a cave in some forest." Duplica reaches around behind her and hands me a small glass of water as she's speaking, "Here, you must be thirsty; don't drink too quickly, you've been out for a while."

I realize immediately that she's right; I'm parched. I glance over at Blaziken and she nods, confirming that the water is safe. Taking a small sip, I manage to refrain from coughing as the cool water runs down my throat. It takes significant willpower not to down the whole cup.

I glance down at my midsection, realizing that it doesn't hurt anymore. I can see the now-familiar pink of new skin has replaced the burn, and a few seconds later I realize the obvious.

"Hey, who took off my shirt?!" I yell, pulling my arms up to cover my chest as I glare daggers at Duplica.

For her part, the Ditto trainer raises a skeptical eyebrow at me, before realizing that I'm actually angry about this. She then sighs and takes her head in her hands, muttering disbelievingly as she walks over to my pack and starts shuffling through it. "Oh, I'm fine May. No really, May, I'm sure. I know I looked to be in a bad way before, but I'm all fixed up now. I understand your concern, May, but no really, I swear I'm fine." She tosses a shirt and bra over to me and with a huff, makes a point of facing away from me and staring at the wall.

I at least have the good grace to be ashamed of my reaction as I get dressed. Really, modesty need not be a huge issue in these circumstances, doubly so since we're both female. But I'm certain that my shirt was removed because leaving a dirty shirt on a healing wound is a bad idea. We obviously have no bandages available, and with the speed I heal at, plus Chansey's assistance, they really weren't needed anyway. I sigh. "Look, I'm sorry for snapping, I just wasn't expecting… it doesn't matter, I was acting like a baby. How is your healing coming? You look like you're doing well."

Duplica turns around and flashes a big grin "Yep! I'm pretty much all better. Thank Mew we heal quickly, huh? And for your Chansey. She did a great job fixing us up." She turns around and, scooping some berries up from a ragged cloth on the ground, hands them to me. "Blaziken brought a bunch of these back earlier. I must say, she did an amazing job finding us food and shelter, and taking care of us while we recovered. Eat."

I thank her and Blaziken for the berries and begin eating, forcing myself to go slowly until I'm sure my stomach can handle food. "So Chansey's okay, right?"

"Yep, she's resting in her pokeball. You were pretty banged up though… Ditto says she had to use Healing Wish to save you." I look over at her in alarm. Healing Wish causes the caster to faint… at best. Duplica keeps talking, "Something about internal damage from the burn being even worse than it looked. And don't worry about Chansey, she's really fine, she's just resting." I glance over at Blaziken and she nods her confirmation.

"So Ditto is okay too then?" I ask.

"Yep Ditto's fine!" she replies. "He's a lot tougher than most people expect!" I manage to repress my inclination to be angry at a male wandering around in the same area as a shirtless and unconscious me. Duplica was right before, it's absurd to be angry about it in this circumstance.

"That's good," I say. There's an awkward silence for a few seconds. "So, uh, Ditto? Thanks. You know, for teleporting us out of there and everything. Given how much long ranged teleportation hurt for me, I can only imagine how painful it must've been for you – great job getting us all the way to Hoenn."

It's difficult to read the body language of an amorphous purple blob, but Ditto gives me what I'm pretty sure is the equivalent of a shrug and then proclaims "Ditto!" with a smile on his face.

"So," Duplica says. "Where're we heading?"

I look over at her, surprised. I almost lie to her, but decide that the destination is general enough to trust her with it. "Well, I'm heading towards the Kiri Kiri Mountains."

Duplica's eyes widen. "Wait, you're going _deeper_ into Hoenn?" She sighs. "You can't say why, can you?" she asks, grimacing.

"No, I can't," I reply apologetically. I've already said more than I should have, I add silently.

"Those orders come from Ash I'm guessing?" They do, and Duplica obviously knows that, but I still can't confirm it for her, so I just shrug helplessly. I'm actually going to be meeting up with Ash and his contact there, Calista, but I can't tell Duplica that. "Right, can't say anything about it I guess. Duh," she knocks her fist against her head as though it were a door. "Well, I don't really have any standing orders these days, and it's not like I'm going to meet up with anyone from the resistance in Hoenn." She rolls her eyes. "Can you at least tell me this much: Does it matter if you make it there?"

I'm honestly still not sure why Ash ordered me to Kiri Kiri, but he said to get there, and get there top speed. And at the end of the conversation, he had genuinely smiled. He looked hopeful. I haven't seen Ash look really, honestly hopeful in years. It must be important for some reason. I look over at Duplica and nod. "Yes."

The Ditto trainer smiles at this. "Well, I can at least do something useful then. If need be, I'll peel off when you reach destination, but I'd like to at least help you get there. It's been a while since I've done anything… you know, significant."

I do know. It feels like this whole war had been nothing but a string of watching friends die and cities fall. "Need will be," I say, letting her know that she won't be able to come the whole way. Ash specifically said that under absolutely _no_ circumstances could I bring _anyone_ with me,_ period_. And with the way the League was using psychics these days…

She nods once. "That's fine. I can at least help get you there."

We both know that Hoenn has been a deathtrap for the past two years. We don't even know where in the region we are. Just that we're in a forested area. A lot of good that does us. It could take anywhere from days to months to get to the Kiri Kiri mountains on foot. And there's no way we could survive in Hoenn for months. We'll be lucky if we last a week.

It strikes me then that at some point over the past three days, Duplica and I have become friends. It's been a long while since I've made a friend. With her help, I almost feel like I'll be able to get there, and everything might turn out alright. For the first time since getting Ash's orders two weeks ago, I feel like I have a real shot at making it to the rendezvous point.

In the next moment, I realize that if Duplica follows me, she's not going to make it. Because even if she somehow survives the journey, she can't come all the way, so she'll then just be stranded in the middle of Hoenn. Depending on where we landed, she might be able to make it to Kanto. Particularly with her skills at disguising herself. I don't want to watch another friend die. I mean, I have an okay chance of making it there on my own, right? I open my mouth to explain to her that if she comes, she's going to die. And as soon as I look at her I realize.

She already knew that when she offered to help.

_This had damn well better be worth it, Ash._

"Get some sleep," I say. "We leave first thing tomorrow."

Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Pokemon. You are dumb if you thought I did. The title comes from Pokemon episode 352. Two of the scenes in the flashbacks are from the anime, episodes 277 and 466.


End file.
